PIETRO BARDELLINO

(Naples, 1728 – 1819)

Joseph Holding the Christ Child

Oil on copper, octagonal

5 ⅝ x 4 ⅝ inches (14.3 x 11.7 cm)

Provenance:   

Private Collection, Argentina

A work of great delicacy and intimacy, this small painting on copper by Pietro Bardellino treats a subject which grew in popularity during the Baroque period: Saint Joseph and the Christ child. The pairing of these two holy figures, with Joseph gently cradling the sleeping child in his arms, serves as a kind of paternal version of the Madonna and Child.

Bardellino was a student of Francesco de Mura, but his style, influenced by that of Corrado Giaquinto and Giacomo del Pò, is somewhat freer and more decorative than that of his master. Among his significant early works is his Last Supper in the Cathedral of Bitonto and the ceiling painting Machaon Curing Menelaus in the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Naples. While noted for his grand decorative projects, Bardellino’s delicacy of touch is evident in his preparatory bozzetti—such as those in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin—as well as in his small-scale works (Fig. 1).

Bardellino’s oeuvre varies in scale and subject from large decorative genre paintings to intimate devotional cabinet pictures, such as the present work. Dr. Nicola Spinosa has confirmed the attribution of this painting to Bardellino (written communication) and dates the present painting to around 1760, when Bardellino’s style is especially close to that of De Mura.